ByteDance will use Huawei's chips to train its AI

ByteDance, the owner of TikTok, is reportedly training its AI on chips developed and built by Huawei Technologies. Both Chinese companies could be trying to build regional AI capabilities and counter US trade restrictions.

ByteDance to rely on Huawei for AI-optimized hardware

Generative Artificial Intelligence (Gen AI) has become mandatory for every tech company. Companies like Google, Microsoft, Meta, Apple, X (formerly Twitter), and several others have Gen AI platforms. Not to be left behind, ByteDance too has built and deployed a few AI platforms.

AI models have powerful pattern recognition and they can help make decisions or predictions based on large data sets. Hence, AI platforms are now common in gaming, e-commerce, social media, and many other sectors.

It is, however, important to point out that most of these AI platforms have tailor-made AI models. But, they all need AI-optimized chips that are capable of digesting a lot of data.

According to Reuters, two Chinese companies are collaborating to develop and improve a custom AI model. Specifically speaking, ByteDance, the Chinese parent company of TikTok, is sourcing chips from Huawei Technologies.

Which Huawei chips will ByteDance source to train its AI?

According to Engadget, ByteDance’s AI projects used NVIDIA’s H20 AI chips. However, owing to geopolitics, ByteDance and other Chinese companies, have restricted access to American software and hardware.

To completely avoid trade restrictions, ByteDance could be sourcing AI chips from Huawei. Additionally, by approaching a Chinese company, the TikTok owner can source newer chips with better and faster processing capabilities.

ByteDance has reportedly ordered 100,000 Ascend 910B chips from Huawei this year. Although the company hasn’t made any official announcement yet, ByteDance has received 30,000 chips from Huawei so far.

Multiple reports suggest Huawei’s Ascend 910B chips are superior to NVIDIA’s A100 chips. Interestingly, these reports stress the Chinese company’s chips outperform NVIDIA’s chips in GPU performance and computing power efficiency.

ByteDance has an AI chatbot called Doubao, an AI text-to-video tool Jimeng, and an AI photo- and video-editing app named FaceU. The latest chips from Huawei could help improve these products. With more than 10 million monthly active users, Doubao has become one of China’s most popular apps within weeks of its launch.